In the early 1990s, WAGA produced an inside-the-newsroom piece that, to my knowledge, never aired on TV. Maybe it was screened for sponsors and other clientele. I stumbled onto it on Youtube. It’s an eye-opener for many reasons:
- Amanda Davis, very fetching in a Sheila E fauxhawk;
- Images of behind-the-scenes folks like Jim Heath, David Boyd, Dan Anderson, Risa Blumen, Scotty MacLaughlin and John Chastain.
- The old newsroom. When I first got there, desks had typewriters and ashtrays;
- Morse Diggs and Dale Russell sporting what would now be considered ironic moustaches;
- A certain news director, thirty pounds lighter, making chicken noises;
- Paul Ossmann, downright boyish, showing off hilariously outdated weather technology triggered by “a garage door opener. Pretty neat, huh?”
The pictures illustrate one change: Back then, it was a boys club. Nowadays, many of those behind-the-scenes faces belong to women. Visit any journalism school, and you’ll know this demographic trend is here to stay.
Indulge me. If you didn’t work at WAGA 15 years ago, you may have trouble appreciating this. Sorry.
And in the same spirit, here’s the late Leroy Powell, narrating a brief history of WAGA. It doesn’t show here, but go ahead and say it anyway: Leroy was a genius.
Posted by David K. on August 15, 2008 at 6:17 am
Wow… This is great… Thanks for the blast from the past (who knew Brenda Wood was so old? she still looks very young!)
Posted by rptrcub on August 15, 2008 at 8:03 am
Thank you — when I look at this, I have wonderful childhood memories (yeah yeah yeah, I’m young) of back when we didn’t have cable, and were living in Clayton County where the planes flying to and from ATL messed with the reception. 2, 5, 8, 11, 17, 30, 36 and 46 were all we had (we couldn’t pick up 69 down there); 5 was still with CBS, 36 was still with FOX and 46 showed syndicated programming like ST:TNG. Those frequencies were where I was infected with the news bug — even though it manifested itself in the virulent newspaper strain.
Posted by JasonC on August 15, 2008 at 1:17 pm
Leroy Powell was great. Either WAGA or WSB created a board game back in the early-mid-80s based on being a journalist. I saw one a few years ago, it was a trip down memory lane for someone who grew up in ATL.
Posted by RonBurgundy on August 15, 2008 at 2:04 pm
Jim Shuler!!! Ken McLeod!!! I miss those guys. Cynthia Goode and Sally Sears, not so much. Lord could those two women grate on you.
Posted by Atlanta blogs today | Fresh Loaf on August 15, 2008 at 5:34 pm
[...] to have Jim Powell disqualified from the Public Service Commission election. — Doug Richards at Live Apartment Fire has dug up a 15-year-old “inside the newsroom” video produced by WAGA-TV. For those who [...]
Posted by Wrangler of Found Light on August 15, 2008 at 9:03 pm
As a new comer to the city that was pretty cool LAF.
Posted by Jeff on August 16, 2008 at 12:25 am
I always respected WAGA – with anchors like Jim Axel, Paul Shields, Chuck Moore and Pam Martin, they knew the city like a native. The station kept good people and they became family. (I was driving through Sandy Springs one day in the 70′s when I saw Paul Shields walking away from his car that had broken down. I gave him a ride back home and he was as nice as could be.) And keeping guys like Leroy Powell and Guy Sharpe around made it a local station that wasn’t ashamed to be in the South. Later, WAGA’s audio engineer, Harvey Morris, taught me a lot about audio and transmitters, for which I will be forever grateful. BTW Doug, watching your work always made me smile – you are a master.
Posted by Scott Hedeen on August 16, 2008 at 12:49 pm
love me some Jim Shuler sightings.
Posted by sayejibley on August 21, 2008 at 1:38 pm
Funny how everything has changed except the technology. SAT recieve looks exactly the same. Also, I think I saw a picture of Callie Lubrant as a baby in there. I believe she’s in college now…
Posted by itpdude on September 3, 2009 at 12:37 am
Leroy was a gem. I remember him doing some piece on all the Peachtrees in Atlanta.